Your View: State uses water permits to limit growth

On a planet with 7 billion people, many of earth's inhabitants have never seen water flow out of a pipe. To bring development, growth and improved quality of life to our world's poorest regions, adequate water supply is essential.

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By ROBERT MARQUIS

southcoasttoday.com

By ROBERT MARQUIS

Posted Jun. 27, 2014 at 12:01 AM

By ROBERT MARQUIS
Posted Jun. 27, 2014 at 12:01 AM

» Social News

On a planet with 7 billion people, many of earth's inhabitants have never seen water flow out of a pipe. To bring development, growth and improved quality of life to our world's poorest regions, adequate water supply is essential.

This was the topic of discussion at the Global Water Summit held in Paris in April. As spring showers soaked tourists, delegates from around the world convened to discuss water's key role in economic recovery and business development.

Back in Massachusetts, the discussion of water resources is headed in the opposite direction. State regulators are not focused on improving the economy or the quality of human lives. Instead, they are seeking to ration the supply and force consumers to pay dearly for reduced use.

Even though this state has among the lowest per-person water use in the nation, special interests are driving regulations to choke the supply of water. By cutting off the supply of additional water, state regulations will cause business and residential growth to wither. Limit water, and you limit economic development.

The state Department of Environmental Protection has proposed new Water Management Act regulations aimed squarely at decreasing water use. The DEP has released the draft rules for a public comment period that ends July 10, after which the final regulations will be issued.

As drafted, the new regulations will sharply increase water rates for the 180 municipal water departments with expiring Water Management Act permits, which cap water use. The new regulations would not affect Massachusetts Water Resources Authority communities, which are fed by the Quabbin Reservoir, and a few water suppliers with grandfathered limits.

Essentially, the draft regulations require a water department that needs more water than the average used in between 2003 and 2005 to complete questionable mitigation projects aimed at replacing each additional drop consumed. The expensive mitigation could also be indirect, such as the removal of dams and the installation of fish ladders, projects that do not return water to the ground.

The new regulations will set up scenarios where water departments will turn away developers and companies looking to expand because there is not enough water available by state permit and seeking an increase will require mitigation that is too costly. These developments will then go elsewhere, and the community will lose out on the economic and tax benefits of development.

Alternatively, water departments will be a tool of the DEP to restrict homeowners' use of water and complete so-called mitigation projects where any benefit to the environment is suspect, at best. Consider a scenario where a water department, in order to win state permit approval, is required to remove a dam. The ratepayers will foot the cost of the project and the lawsuits from property owners whose waterfront lots disappear along with the pond created by the dam.

It is abundantly clear that public water supply is being used as a planning tool to restrict growth and make an end run around municipal zoning bylaws. When a government entity directly restricts land use, it interferes with private property rights, which constitutes a taking and is subject to compensation. However, when lack of water denies a property owner the right to develop, the same result is accomplished in the name of the environment and the landowner is helpless.

The new regulations fail to address the importance of water to economic growth. They place no importance on serving the people of Massachusetts and providing an abundant water supply. If water allocation were truly the issue, the state would prohibit the issuance of building permits in those few areas of Massachusetts with limited water supplies until the aquifers were replenished or new sources found.

Indeed, the regulations fail to encourage the development of new water sources, such as the construction of desalination plants that turn saltwater into safe, quality drinking water. As a seaside state, Massachusetts should tap this abundant resource.

The Global Water Summit in Paris included its version of the Academy Awards for leading water projects around the globe. Along with projects from Dubai, Israel and Singapore, the Swansea Water District's $20 million desalination plant placed third in its category of "Best Desalination Plant" commissioned in 2013.

Swansea is not blessed with abundant groundwater supplies, and we have turned to a tidal river for water to support the people and economy of our community rather than cutting off the supply. Fresh, clean water is an essential commodity that should flow freely and not be used as a planning tool to limit growth and reduce our quality of life.